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to the value of the universal distribution and study
of God's word:
"The same holy feeling which prompts the disciples
of the Lord Jesus to preach the gospel to the destitute
and perishing will surely lead them to accompany
the spoken with the written word. Now as in preach-
ing we are to go to those who need instruction, so if
we would have the world made better by the Bible,
we may freely circulate it through all lands and in all
languages."
The result of the report was that the Indian Bible
society was formed, auxiliary to the American Foreign
Bible society. Quoting from the obituary notice in tile
Missionary Magazine for November, 1842:
"The crowning and ennobling principle of his char-
acter, and that which shone brilliant and steady in all
circles, on the bench of justice, the political forum, and
the walks of private life, was the influence of chris-
tianity. Its truth, spirit, devotion and practice were
prominent in his whole character."
He died March 23d, 1842, knowing that he must
go, and expressing full confidence in the presence,
power, love and saving grace of his Lord.
Another of the leading men in the Laughery Asso-
ciation was William S. Holman, son of Jesse L. Hol-
man. He was born in Indiana in 1822; he had the
educational advantages of the public schools, and a
course, though not complete, in Franklin College.
He engaged in the study and practice of law, and in
1843 was elected probate judge for his county. He
was chosen prosecuting attorney of his county from
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1847 to 1869;and in 1851 was elected a member of the
Indiana legislature. In 1858 he was elected to the
United States Congress, and was elected fifteen terms
in succession--an honor that has not fallen to any other
congressman in the history of the country. He was
a member of the Aurora Baptist church at the time
of his death, and had been for many years. And
while he gave a great deal of time to civil matters he
was also actively connected with his denominational
work in Indiana. He was a member of the board
of trustees of Franklin College from 1851 to 1857,
and was chairman of some of the most important com-
mittees of the Indiana Baptist Convention. He was
an active and earnest supporter of the government
through the trying times of the civil war; and more
than one Indiana soldier found him ready to sym-
pathize with him and help-him, as they met in Wash-
ington.
Judge Turpie, his colleague and lifelong friend,
had this to say of him in an address during the Obit-
uary exercises in the House of Congress in 1897:
"He was for the Union at all risk, and at every cost.
He supported the prosecution of the war for the
Union with fervent zeal and unflagging constancy.
He had, all his life, resided on the very border between
the free and the slave States. He represented the
people of a border district. His constituents had with
their neighbors of Kentucky, and indeed with the
people of the entire south, through the great commerce
of the Ohio river, the most intimate and congenial re-
lations; but these cost him not a moment's hesitation.
